YWCA Greenwich Candlelight Vigil

YWCA Greenwich is proud to honor Leslie Cenci with the 2021 Purple Ribbon Award. This award is presented annually at YWCA Greenwich’s Candlelight Vigil to acknowledge an individual who has made a difference in the lives of victims of domestic abuse in our community.

Leslie Cenci was an Advanced Practice RN who worked at Greenwich Hospital for 28 years, mostly in the clinic for the underserved population of Greenwich. While working with pregnant patients, Leslie realized that some of the women she was seeing were victims of domestic abuse. To better serve her patients, she knew that she needed to know more about domestic violence to help these new mothers with their pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum safety planning. In 2016, Leslie completed the CT State Certification course for domestic violence advocates, and her focus shifted to specializing in DV. She currently works for YWCA Greenwich’s Domestic Abuse Services as a hotline advocate and provides support to staff in designing health related materials for clients. She has continued her training by attending a program on Advanced Strangulation Prevention to help educate clients and staff on the aspects of life-threatening, nonfatal strangulation, a common domestic violence scenario. In addition to her work at YWCA Greenwich, Leslie volunteers as an APRN at the Americares Free Clinic in Norwalk and loves spending time with her two beautiful, smart granddaughters, ages 2 and almost 4.